Instead of imposing more sanctions against the Taliban, the U.S. will likely try to repurpose existing regimes to better target the group, sanctions and security experts said. The task, which the experts expect to be “very” challenging, will aim to update a U.S. sanctions program that was originally intended to target terrorists but will need to now target the Taliban-controlled Afghan government. The efforts should be coordinated with allies, the experts added, but could be slowed by the delayed nominations of two senior Treasury Department sanctions officials, who have not yet cleared the Senate.
A former top U.S. national security official argued for a more cautious approach to U.S. sanctions policy, saying the administration should seriously assess whether sanctions will work before making them a default foreign policy tool. Although “sanctions can work” when they impose consequential political or economic costs, many U.S. sanctions today don’t have as strong of a purpose, Gregory Treverton, chairman of the National Intelligence Council from 2014 to 2017, said in an Aug. 15 opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times. When the U.S. “targets individual Russians or Chinese or Iranians, it is almost always a symbolic gesture, like indicting foreigners who will never be extradited,” Treverton said. “Symbols matter but concrete results are better.”
The Biden administration sanctioned two Russian individuals and a Russian vessel involved in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, the State Department said on Aug. 20. The Office of Foreign Assets Control designated the parties under the Protecting Europe’s Energy Security Act (PEESA), which authorizes sanctions against Russia’s energy sector and its use of energy export pipelines. "The administration continues to oppose Nord Stream 2 as a bad deal for Ukraine, and a bad deal for Europe, and a harmful Russian geopolitical project," State spokesperson Ned Price said during a briefing. "We remain committed to implementing PEESA even as we take steps to reduce the risks an operational NS2 pipeline would pose to European energy security and the security of Ukraine and frontline NATO and EU countries."
The State Department and the Office of Foreign Assets Control recently announced a series of sanctions against Russia, including import restrictions on firearms and the designation of entities and individuals connected the poisoning of Russian opposition figure Aleksey Navalny. Coming on the one-year anniversary of Navalny’s poisoning with Novichok nerve agent, the new sanctions are being carried out “in concert” with the United Kingdom, State said.
The United Kingdom's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation added seven names to its chemical weapons sanctions list, in an Aug. 20 financial sanctions notice. Added are Alexey Alexandrov, Vladimir Panyaev, Ivan Vladimirovich Osipov, Vladimir Mikhailovich Bogdanov, Kirill Vasilyev, Stanislav Valentinovich Makshakov and Alexei Semenovich Sedov, who are each subject to an asset freeze. All seven are operatives of Russia's Federal Security Service.
The Biden administration recently announced a series of new sanctions measures against Russia that take aim at the poisoning of Russian opposition figure Aleksey Navalny and officials connected to the country’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
The Drug Enforcement Administration is proposing to list mesocarb, a substance with stimulating properties marketed in Russia for treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder that has no approved medical use and no known therapeutic application in the U.S., under schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, it said in a notice published Aug. 11. “If finalized, this action would impose the regulatory controls and administrative, civil, and criminal sanctions applicable to schedule I controlled substances on persons who handle (manufacture, distribute, reverse distribute, import, export, engage in research, conduct instructional activities or chemical analysis with, or possess), or propose to handle, mesocarb.” Comments are due by Oct. 12.
Russia imposed sanctions on a “proportionate” number of British citizens in response to the United Kingdom's anti-corruption sanctions listings on Russian individuals (see 2104270017), the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Aug. 9, according to an unofficial translation. The sanctions include a travel ban, but the Russian government did not specify how many or which individuals are sanctioned. “We consider these groundless attacks by London to be a clear demonstration of the true intentions of the country's leadership with regard to further building its course in the Russian direction, namely, the desire to conduct destructive activities on the bilateral track,” the foreign ministry said. “We state that after leaving the [European Union], Great Britain stepped up even more in building up sanctions tools, including for demonstrating leadership in the campaign of denigrating Russia.”
The Biden administration will maintain a Trump-era policy that loosened export restrictions on certain unmanned drones, a decision that drew applause from the aerospace defense industry last year but sparked concern from some lawmakers.
President Joe Biden issued a new executive order to expand existing U.S. sanctions authorities against Belarus and issued a host of new designations targeting the country’s government for last year’s “fraudulent” presidential elections. The Aug. 9 order authorizes sanctions against a broad range of government officials, oligarchs, entities and private companies, including those operating in Belarus’ defense, energy, security, potassium chloride, transportation and construction sectors. Sanctions are also authorized against people or entities with links to “public corruption” in Belarus or transactions deemed to be “deceptive or structured” to evade U.S. sanctions on behalf of the Belarusian government.